Caution: phony feminism, shameful campaign

Banning Father’s Day may be an attempt to disrupt the works of true feminists

By Iloradanon Efimoff, Contributor

Earlier in June, a storm of feminists—in reality, 4chan trolls—took to Twitter to campaign against Father’s Day.

Some people think it’s pretty obvious that this was a joke, a hoax, etc.—but unfortunately, others took it seriously. Like Fox News, of course, which had a televised segment on the horror of the #EndFathersDay campaign.

Even though it was a hoax, and was started by people who were obviously not feminists—as has been admitted by 4chan users—some people caught on and mistook the campaign for a real one. However, I agree with them that it was a real campaign, albeit one of a completely different nature. It was a campaign to further damn the face of feminism in the minds of young men and women today, and apparently Fox News journalists.

It’s sad but true: no one wants to be a feminist anymore. That shit was over in the ‘80s. Many of the people I see at school believe in all of the tenets of feminism, but don’t consider themselves to be a feminist. They don’t want to be labelled a man-hater.

Feminism is about equality—plain and simple. It means hold the door open for me and I’ll hold it open for you. It means we can split the bill, we’re both entitled to have an orgasm, and people of all genders and sexes deserve to have the same wages and benefits for doing the same jobs. I don’t hate men. I have a father, a stepfather, brothers, uncles, male cousins, and male friends whom I love very dearly. I wouldn’t hate anyone based on their gender or sex, and most feminists I know feel the same. Feminism is supposed to be about breaking out of discrimination, not turning discrimination around. Spite isn’t going to help anything.

That’s why this sort of shit pisses me off. People actually believe this! People assume that feminists, as a whole, don’t wear bras, don’t shave their armpits, hate men, are lesbians; now, icing on the cake, people assume that feminists want to ban Father’s Day. For the majority of us, this is simply not true. And for those who believe in that philosophy, that’s fine, everyone is entitled to an opinion. In the same way that all Muslim’s are painted as terrorists, this is an unfair portrayal. Yes, some feminists are really radical—but that doesn’t mean we all are.

What do I think if we ban Father’s Day and Mother’s Day? How about a Parent’s Day? Or a Guardian’s Day? Or a Caretaker’s Day? Frankly, no matter how you word it, it’s going to insult somebody. You will never please everyone.

And maybe some feminists actually believe that Father’s Day should be banned. But the fact that this was started by 4channers trying to further derail feminism from its path to gender equality is pathetic. Why is feminism demonized when it really just means equality?